Agriculture has always been a part of Wendell Scales’ life.
While growing up in a small town in Lonoke County, he loaded crop dusters and worked at a grocery store.
Although he was raised in a middle-class African American family surrounded by agriculture — his grandfather was a sharecropper, his mom chopped cotton and his dad worked at a rice lab — Scales said he “never saw a way through ag because of all the systemic stuff.”
Today he provides students from underrepresented communities a pathway to the agriculture industry through the state’s first and only Junior Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) chapter.
The nonprofit organization was founded in 1982 at Michigan State University as a way to develop a network between students and professionals from academic institutions, government entities and industry organizations, according to the group’s website.
“I like to make sure students had opportunities that we never had,” Scales said. “Being in rural small spaces, a lot of times you only literally see what’s down the street in the neighborhood.”
Scales helped launch the Junior MANRRS chapter in 2022 at Arkansas Lighthouse Charter Schools where he serves as Director of Innovation. The Central Arkansas charter school district is the state’s only K-12 school system focused on AgriSTEM, public service and social entrepreneurship, he said.
In the spring, ALCS will implement Freight Farm, a program that provides students “hands-on farm to school practices, focused on environmental stewardship while enhancing technology in shaping the future of food production beyond the classroom,” he said.
This year, 105 students in grades 6-12 are participating in Junior MANRRS at ALCS where about two-thirds of the students are African American.
“They’ve got to see other people that look like them in this space as well, too, and I think that’s the power of what MANRRS can do — putting these students in that situation where they can see beyond the neighborhood,” Scales said.
To create this new group, Scales partnered with Jacquelyn Mosley, faculty adviser for MANRRS at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and assistant dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences. The two institutions began collaborating in 2021 through the Arkansas Lighthouse Summer Enrichment Academy, a three-day camp that brings ALCS students to the UA Fayetteville campus.
The college students act as peer mentors for ALCS students throughout the year, meeting quarterly and focusing on career and soft skill development. The most important component is the diversity of the students because “you can be what you see,” Mosley said.
“Our ultimate goal is really exposing them to agriculture careers and opportunities because there are so many in the state of Arkansas, and it’s an opportunity to uplift individuals out of poverty within one generation with these opportunities,” Mosley said. “So that’s really our ultimate goal, it is not just to recruit.”
Mosley said she and Scales were “waiting to find each other” when they met nearly two years ago and connected over their shared passions. Mosley’s academic research has long focused on cultural competency, and this fall she received the 2023 National Experiment Station Section Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.
(John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
Mosley said the University of Arkansas’ mission as the state’s land-grant institution is to focus on underrepresented communities who historically haven’t had access to higher education, and provide that opportunity for those who choose it.
States could establish public colleges funded by the development or sale of federal land grants under the Morrill Act of 1862. The land-grant institutions emphasized agriculture and mechanic arts, providing opportunities to farmers and working people who were previously excluded from higher education, according to the National Archives.
“What DEI is to me is that land-grant mission,” Mosley said. “So I don’t know many people who don’t believe in the land-grant mission where you are trying to be the institution that provides access and opportunities for all Arkansans, and I don’t know of anyone who would say, ‘Well I don’t believe in that.’”
Agricultural State
People typically “think of cows, plows and sows” when it comes to agriculture, Scales said, but advances in technology are expanding job opportunities in the industry.
About 40 MANRRS students and advisers from ALCS, UA Fayetteville, Arkansas Tech University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff learned more about various career opportunities during a tour of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Little Rock headquarters in November.
“There is a high demand for young professionals within the agriculture industry and organizations like MANRRS play a crucial role in connecting students to a broad range of career opportunities,” Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward said.
(John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
Overall employment of agricultural workers is projected to decline 2% by 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, about 115,700 openings are projected annually over the next decade as a result of the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or retire.
This could have a big impact on Arkansas where agriculture adds $16 billion annually to the economy and is the state’s largest industry, according to Arkansas Farm Bureau.
In addition to providing a wealth-building opportunity, Scales said it’s important to ensure underrepresented populations have access to the agricultural workforce because they can help tackle issues like how to sustainably feed the world’s growing population, which is projected to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050, according to a United Nations report.
“You’re solving real problems and, no pun intended, you’re planting seeds as well,” Scales said. “So these young people are the future, and we have some big challenges with climate and environmental justice.”
Isaiah Solomon is working on a master’s degree in agricultural regulations at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and said the tour was “really eye-opening.” In addition to speaking with Ward and leaders of Agriculture Department divisions, like forestry and livestock and poultry, students also visited laboratories where staff discussed testing everything from pesticides to rice to animals.
Solomon studied agriculture in college at his mother’s suggestion but said his appreciation for nature grew from spending “many nights under the stars” as a Boy Scout.
“Honestly I’m a simple guy. I just like looking at nice farms, a whole bunch of acres, just looking out into the open,” he said. “I like working with plants and understanding that it could be a person getting fed off this plant that I’m working with or trying to learn about.”
Cris Caballero grew up on a dairy farm in Panama before coming to Fayetteville to study animal science at the University of Arkansas. Caballero said she joined MANRRS because she belongs to several minority groups as an international student, a member of the Latin and Hispanic community, and a woman in agriculture.
Additionally, Caballero said the organization provides networking opportunities and information about internships and potential careers.
“I think it’s very important because with this group you are able to grow and find opportunities within the agriculture field, and science and agriculture is very broad,” Caballero said.
President Jimena Rodriguez said she joined the UA MANRRS chapter to get involved on campus and to meet people who could share their experiences “navigating spaces in the agriculture industry being a person of color.”
Rodriguez said mentorship is a key component to success. The UA senior said she’s enjoyed helping build a pipeline as a mentor herself, and hopes to be replaced by “somebody as equally as passionate of seeing other people grow and be happy and successful in their spaces” when she graduates in the spring.
“It’s just been a huge blessing to just be a part of all of it and again, yes the networking, but the relationships, I think it’s more than just a business transaction with everybody that we are able to work with,” she said.
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